Search the Dictionary

To rush and press with violence; to move furiously. Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails. Dryden. Under cover of the night and a driving tempest. Prescott. Time driveth onward fast, And in a little while our lips are dumb. Tennyson.

To shrivel or wither; to lose vitality. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. I Kings xiii. 4.

Managing with frugality; guarding against waste or unnecessary expense; careful and frugal in management and in expenditure; -- said of character or habits. Just rich enough, with economic care, To save a pittance. Harte.

To bring or draw out; to cause to appear; to produce against counter agency or influence; to extract; to evolve; as, to educe a form from matter. The eternal art educing good from ill. Pope. They want to educe and cultivate what is best and noblest in themselves. M. Arnold.

To draw out or entice forth; to bring to light; to bring out against the will; to deduce by reason or argument; as, to elicit truth by discussion.

in a body, a mass, or a collection; to coalesce. [Written also imbody.] Firmly to embody against this court party. Burke.

To come against face to face; to meet; to confront, either by chance, suddenly, or deliberately; especially, to meet in opposition or with hostile intent; to engage in conflict with; to oppose; to struggle with; as, to encounter a friend in traveling; two armies encounter each other; to encounter obstacles or difficult…

The act of enforcing; compulsion. He that contendeth against these enforcements may easily master or resist them. Sir W. Raleigh. Confess 't was hers, and by what rough enforcement You got it from her. Shak.

That which is enormous; especially, an exceeding offense against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime; flagitious villainy; an atrocity. These clamorous enormities which are grown too big and strong for law or shame. South.

e excellence or good fortune of another; maliciously grudging; -- followed by of, at, and against; as, an envious man, disposition, attack; envious tongues. My soul is envious of mine eye. Keble. Neither be thou envious at the wicked. Prov. xxiv. 19.

to disparage. [Obs.] If I make a lie To gain your love and envy my best mistress, Put me against a wall. J. Fletcher.

To furnish for service, or against a need or exigency; to fit out; to supply with whatever is necessary to efficient action in any way; to provide with arms or an armament, stores, munitions, rigging, etc.; -- said esp. of ships and of troops. Dryden. Gave orders for equipping a considerable fleet. Ludlow.…

One who equivocates. Here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, yet could not equivocate to heaven. Shak.

distance of one centimeter; the amount of energy expended in moving a body one centimeter against a force of one dyne. One foot pound is equal to 13,560,000 ergs.

, or denial; an admission, by words or conduct, which induces another to purchase rights, against which the party making such admission can not take a position inconsistent with the admission.

S. ] -- To turn King's, Queen's or State's evidence, to confess a crime and give evidence against one's accomplices.

to inflame the anger of; as, to exasperate a person or his feelings. To exsasperate them against the king of France. Addison.

To object to; to protest against. [Obs.] Shak.

; cavil; dissent; disapprobation; offense; cause of offense; -- usually followed by to or against. I will never answer what exceptions they can have against our account [relation]. Bentley. He . . . took exception to the place of their burial. Bacon. She takes exceptions at your person. Shak. Bill of exceptions (Law),…

To institute a process against (any one) in the Court of Exchequer.